XCOM 2 inbound! Due to arrive in November

[Arctic Blast]

This time, XCom has been forced underground by a government which has essentially handed Earth to the aliens.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/06/01/xcom-2-announced-ign-first?watch

Tomorrow you'll get an in-depth overview and interview with Creative Director Jake Solomon that'll highlight the major new features, including new soldier classes, new aliens, stealth-infused tactics, procedurally generated maps, and more.

Also, it's PC-only and they're talking up modding abilities.

Big overview of the game is supposed to drop tomorrow.

[undercovergeek]

currently fighting the good fight in the Long War - but this is SOLD already!!!  O0

[MengJiao]

currently fighting the good fight in the Long War - but this is SOLD already!!!  O0

Sounds great!  I'm training up on whacky infiltration in Invisible -- I'll be ready!

[Tpek]

Neat!

[Steelgrave]

Nooooo, this CAN'T be right! How could the aliens have taken over, because in the first game I beat their ass!!!

Grrrrr, guess I'll have to do it again!   8)

[Capn Darwin]

Oh hell yes  O0

[bbmike]

Great, now I want to go back and play XCOM: Enemy Unknown again.  :P
And yes, instant buy for me.

[Windigo]

currently fighting the good fight in the Long War - but this is SOLD already!!!  O0

The GOOD and LONG fight. Where you at with the LW mod?

[SirAndrewD]

I've got to clean my shorts....both sides.

[FarAway Sooner]

That's a hell of a trailer!

It's funny, because the production values were really slick, the mission variety was a huge enhancement, and it preserved a lot of the same dynamics of the original.  But, for some reason, I just didn't find the recent X-Com release nearly as captivating as the original.  It just got to feeling a little grindy.

That wouldn't be a big deal, but I've been playing Xenonauts for about 80 hours now and enjoying the daylights out of it!  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's just the added element of the Air-to-Air battles to break the monotony of fighting, building, buffing up my troops, fighting, rinse, repeat?

Still, that second game looks really slick.  I'm curious to see how they'll adapt the game mechanics to fomenting rebellion!

[Capn Darwin]

I've got to clean my shorts....both sides.

I think we all do after watching that trailer... :o 

2K has some big shoes to fill to best the crew that has done the Long War mod for EW. Lots of great stuff making it a whole new game. Throw in a few other UI and texture mods and the game just rocks. If you want to see it running check out the Firaxis Twitch stream on Tuesday afternoons when Beaglerush is playing. He is awesome to watch play and you get a really good run down of what long war can do. You can also view past streams as well since he is running a campaign.  O0

[JasonPratt]

November.

In time for my birthday.

Excellent.  8)

[Windigo]

November.

In time for my birthday.

Excellent.  8)

Happy early Birthday!

[Arctic Blast]

And here's IGN's 2 page first look at the game! Sounds pretty awesome.

Solomon painted an alternate version of how the war unfolded: "When the aliens showed up, XCOM suffered massive casualties, and governments around the world crumbled in face of popular support to surrender. Then, the Earth was quickly overrun. And so, 20 years into the future, the world is a very different place. The aliens rule Earth from giant shining megacities where all the people of Earth are flocking; that's where they're promised an easy life, a secure life free of disease."

First of all, we have a new team of battle-hardened XCOM soldier classes that are similar to Enemy Unknown's, but distinct. The Sharpshooter shares a lot of DNA with EU's Sniper, but can also specialize in using a pistol as a primary weapon instead of a last resort. The Ranger is the evolution of the Assault class, still specializing in close combat with shotguns and the like, but now comes equipped with XCOM's first lethal melee weapon: a machete-like blade. The Grenadier? He (or she) blows things up, much like the Heavy. The Specialist replaces Support, and uses a hovering drone called a Gremlin both in combat to stun enemies and buff allies, and out of combat to pull off tricks like long-range hacking. There's also a fifth mystery class that Firaxis is saving for reveal closer to launch.

"In XCOM 2, the idea is that you have the jump on the aliens. They're already there, and they're not hiding." That means we'll have the element of surprise: our small squads (still in the four to six range) will arrive unseen in enemy-controlled territory, at which point we'll be able to scout out the alien positions and move our troops around the battlefield for as long as we're able to stay out of hostile units' detection radius and behind cover. Thanks to a new concealment system and waypoints that'll allow you to precisely guide your troops' movement within their two-move radius, setting up the battle will be a big part of what Firaxis intends XCOM 2 to be about. "You have a lot of control over when the engagement starts," Solomon explained. "Of course, a lot of times you'll blunder or do something wrong, like come around the corner and get revealed. We give the player the ability to jump the enemy first, and that feels very resistance-y, very guerilla tactics."

Procedurally built maps means many more battlefields, but without the chaos that can ensue from 100% randomly built maps. It sounds like a system where the system builds the map in tiles based on the sort of terrain where the battle is taking place, so you get random tiles but they all fit together coherently. Along with the procedurally generated maps are...procedurally generated objectives, which sounds potentially awesome. Primary goals, secondary goals, calling in for extraction...sweet.

You start off without a lot of tech, so looting the aliens is important if you want to gear up quickly. You might find yourself carrying a dead ally out of a battle just to save their gear.

It also sounds like you're trying to win back territory by taking out aliens and bringing the locals over to your side. This gives you more areas from which to launch your raids, since your mobile base needs to move constantly to avoid the aliens finding your location.

And then there are the aliens...

Sectoids have taken this opportunity to incorporate human DNA into their own, rapidly changing their species from four-foot-tall imps into imposing seven-foot-tall monsters with beady eyes and a brand-new set of unsettling pearly whites. Worse, they've enhanced their psionic abilities to include mind control from the get-go, making them extremely dangerous for any one soldier to take on by themselves. Despite their more human-like legs, Sectoids have apparently not yet evolved the ability to wear pants, but still have greyish-pink skin and an otherworldly glow emanating from their internal organs. Though we saw an XCOM Ranger slice through a Sectoid with a melee attack in the trailer, Solomon assured me that a move like that would only be possible in-game if the Sectoid had already been softened up.

In addition, the XCOM 2 trailer showed us the snake-like female Vipers (a clear reference to the Snake Men of X-COM: UFO Defense), who have the capability to not just immobilize and slowly crush a soldier with a constriction ability similar to Enemy Within's Seekers, but can also yank them right out of cover with a frog-like tongue. Beyond that, background images hint at the return of the psionically powerful four-armed Ethereals, and we're told many other XCOM enemies will be back along with a complement of all-new alien invaders.

And finally, the human lackeys!

Obviously, this kind of creature would render the early game a miserable, punishing experience wherein the typical XCOM rookie would be ground to a pulp if there was more than one or two in play at once. Hence, we have a new form of fodder against whom our lowly recruits can prove themselves and level up: the Advent. So far we've seen two ranks of these (probably) human collaborators, whom Solomon clarified have no direct relation to the Exalt forces from Enemy Within. These rank-and-file troopers wear black armor, wield magnetic weaponry, and maintain order in the alien-controlled cities. We'll have more on the aliens and the Advent later this month in our XCOM 2 Enemy Profiles.

[JasonPratt]

This alternate you-lost history (weird, deja vu, I feel like we've discussed this concept before for X-Com...) makes a lot better sense of using the classic game's structure than the secret war against invaders which always felt like it ought to involve tons of ass kicking military involvement.